Take a walk with me...

...this post is loaded heavily with images. I purposely sized them small for loading time in mind. If you'd like to view them larger, click on any image to take you to the lightbox filter for an enlargement slideshow......AND... my hodgepodge answers for our hostess, Joyce, are below all the photos. Please scroll down.

Early one morning this past week, Bud and I drove up north off Interstate 37 and stopped at a favorite wooded area in hopes of seeing a Lazuli Bunting that was reported there. Well, we didn't find it, but never-the-less it was a good walk. Quiet, still, and no other people around!!! Way too early. It was a dismal morning. No rain, but the clouds were heavy and gray. As we walked around all three ponds [two with water, the other long dried up from the drought over the years], went to the long, still running, wide river and traipsed the opposite sides of the ponds. Birds we did get in our sights were the usual ones, cardinals, indigo buntings, red winged blackbirds, sparrows, lesser scaups, tri-colored herons, egrets, a northern harrier soaring quietly above us at one point, kingbirds, scissor-tailed flycatchers, a couple of turkey vultures perched on a roof of a boat ramp along the river...and hidden, sleeping on a tree branch, a chuck will's widow [a nightjar].

...so, come walk with me through the forest. I call it a forest only because on a day like the day we were out and about, the dense woods are dark and deep. Always, I think of days of yore, the time frame of King Arthur and the knights in shining armor and their black horses with the long flowing manes and tails dancing in the wind as they ride through the forest in times of war or perhaps on their way to the castle. As I peer through the dense growth of green and brown and all the deep shadowed crevices, I am hoping to see Lancelot upon his steed watching me. See if you feel the same way as we step into the days of yesterday---

last photo in this series...the one with the dark shape on the branch is the nightjar bird!

...the only silver armor we saw was on the Scissor-tailed Flycatchers...

linking to: Nature Notes, Wild Bird Wednesday, Our World Tuesday
and
I'm really stretching the 'old' for Rubbish Tuesday. Not only the trees are old, but the Nueces River according to Texas History:The Nueces River, although not explored in its entirety until the eighteenth century, was the first Texas river to be given a prominent place on European maps.

1. April showers bring May flowers or so the saying goes. Are you blooming where you're planted as we begin the month of May? Blooming, but not much in showers. Rain showers that is. Which makes me wonder....'another drought headed our way?' Figuratively, I'm blooming in my life...right where I want to be; no other place.

2. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being no big deal, and 10 being full scale panic, rank your fear of spiders. Probably a 2. Really no big deal. But still, they're spiders and creepy.

3. May is National Salad Month (who knew???)...besides lettuce, what are two must-have ingredients in your favorite salad? Fresh, raw zucchini and shredded carrots.

4. [Joyce's daughter, not mine] I mentioned on my blog last week that my Daughter1 will be moving to Washington State after she is married. Of the following sites in the Northwest, which would you most like to see in person-Crater Lake (Oregon), Seattle (Washington), Vancouver (British Columbia), San Juan Islands (Washington), Mt. Rainer (Washington), Oregon Coast (Oregon), Mt. St. Helens (Washington), or Olympic National Park (Washington) I love the Oregon Coastline...so it'd be my choice.

5. This coming weekend marks the 140th running of the Kentucky Derby...when did you last race (literally or figuratively) to cross a finish line? I can't remember...guess it'd have something to do with my job from long ago, so that would be before retiring. Years ago like I said. In most recent days, I'm thinking racing to beat the traffic light before it changes to yellow/red.

6. What is something little you love? I love "little" sweet gestures from Bud...like: Taking me out to dine. Telling me my outfit is cute, or that he likes my new haircut [just had it cut yesterday]. It's always good for me when he compliments me on my prepared meal. Little things like this, I love. And, if you're wanting something living that I love that's small, our two kitties...Tahoe and Winston.

7. Would you say you are more of a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner? Elaborate. Oh, definitely I'm a hands on learner, so kinesthesia is my answer. I remember learning to crochet and watching my mother as she tried to teach me as I watched her...didn't get it...until I took yarn and hook in my hand to learn. But...coming right down to the nitty-gritty of it all a kinesthetic learner is all of the above...physical, visual and auditory all combined. Right?

8. Insert your own random thought here.I finished a book last week, and I must say that I wasn't all that impressed with the author's ability to create a romance. For me, there is just something with a male's point of view on sexual encounters and romance that makes me shake my head in despair. LOL Other than the romance side of the novel, the rest wasn't all that bad. The book, Magnolia City by Duncan Anderson, caught my eye on the bookshelf in the bookstore after reading the inside flap...it was about Houston, Texas in the 1920s. Now, not knowing the history of Houston, I really can't say just how accurate his depiction of Houston was...still, I was intrigued. Again, putting the romance aside from the story, it was okay. It had to be okay, I finished it. LOL The oil boom, discovering oil in NE Texas, some familiar towns in my area, bootleggers, the stock market crash, family differences and secrets....high society and old money, all well and good. I'd give this book only a 4 out of a 10 score tho...because of what I mentioned already and no need to go further. Definitely not a keeper; it's in the closet waiting to be traded in at the used book store. My new read is entirely different from the oil wells of Texas. Another subject I'm interested in and that's the history of Lincoln's assassination...with a twist. It's a non-fiction. The subject: the actors and stagehands and how their lives were affected after Booth shot the president in Ford's Theater. So far I've only read the preface and a chapter or two and I'm really hooked!!

...the preface found through Google Books, I share here from the book Backstage at the Lincoln Assassination: [it will be enlarged if you click on it]

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120 comments
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Enjoyed seeing your pictures. It is nice time to have a walk in the morning to get the fresh air and to feel relaxed!I have enjoyed reading all your post and i am a follower of your blog. I wish you to visit my blog and be a member of mine!

Your photos are amazing. I think my favorites are of the bright yellow flower (is that a sunflower?) and of the Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher ~ great job! Think nothing of playing catch up with your visitors, no worries here. Just enjoy yourself! Have a good week!

I enjoyed going through the dark forest with you, Anni. And I just finished a pretty good book myself, I went looking for more by the same author. It's called "May We Be Forgiven" by A.M. Homes. You might enjoy it, but maybe not. :-)

That was a beautiful walk through the woods. Loved the Flycatcher. I hope you get some showers to help break that drought. I enjoy reading things about Lincoln sounds like a good read. I'll keep that in mind when I finish the books I have now.

i am a hands on learner... and this is a place that i would love to wander... loved all the photos of your walk...something little i love is anything that is really small, like a baby's tennis shoes or doll furniture... baby clothes, not the baby though. tiny things i just love no matter what it is. miniature is what i like

#6. I love the answer and I do believe our B's were cut from the same cloth and had great Mom's too. Small things mean so much. We seem to have a feline fetish here too. I've never seen a scissor tail in person...very handsome birdHugs Cecilia

Love walks in the woods and I have a very active imagination, too. I haven't thought of Sir Lancelot, tho. :) Great photos! I enjoyed seeing the scissor tail. And, it's always interesting to read the Hodgepodge Q&A's. The books both sound interesting!

Love your photos, as always. I hike through your lens! I also enjoyed you Hodgepodge. Watch for mine tomorrow! The book on Lincoln does sound intriguing! Keep us posted, please! Oh, and I think you are right, that kinesthetic learning would certainly include visual and verbal... hmmmmm.

I could almost smell the damp leaves mouldering underfoot in the deep shade. I liked the way the thumbnails popped right up into the slideshow. Quite and experience. Sorry I have not been very active online the past two weeks, as we have had a house full of guests and then my wife Mary Lou's brother passed away on Easter Sunday and now we are headed for his wake and funeral in Arizona, thence to our second home in Illinois.

First of all, that is a gorgeous, sweet bird with that tinge of rose. I hope you get the rain you need. I wish we could send all our extra rain this week in a pipeline to your place, but I hear pipelines are out. I'm not much for fiction, so the Lincoln book sounds way more interesting to me, even historical fiction.

Nice walk with you. I like tomatoes and onions (if I'm not going anywhere but to the cows) in my salad. I'm not very afraid of spiders other then Brown Recluse and Black Widows. Always like your entries.

Hi Annie -- love those scissor-tail flycatchers... couldn't believe them the first time I saw them (of course when we were staying in Texas near where you are). Those black birds in my post are definitely skimmers. I did a whole post on them for WBW last week... I will put a link to that post for my name when I send you this. (I need to go in and retitle the collage...I just made an album called rescue birds because they were pictures I almost threw out and then decided I could use them in a collage.)

Hi Anni, I loved the photos. Your foliage is so different from ours and the wildflowers were beautiful, so colourful. I enjoyed the photos of the scissor-tailed flycatcher. Very unlike anything we have here. It fascinates me how different the birds are in other parts of the world.

What a treat to walk with you thru the forest seeing all that glorious nature has for us to see. I loved that you mention Lancelot. I am always pretending I am back in those exciting days when I am out in the countryside or on walks when it is misty and magical. When traveling in Ireland I would always pretend I was “the queen of all I surveyed” whenever I saw old castles. Thanks for a beautiful post. genie

Great pics., again, Anni! Loved seeing them! If you get a chance, you might be interested in the first pic. I posted yesterday. It's one I took of a red-tailed hawk in our backyard that caught a chipmunk and had it in the tree with him. I was thrilled to be able to get a photo of it! Wonderful answer to #6. It is the little things that mean the most.

I wish I could walk where you walk! Beautiful photos. Sweet and sweeter still are the little things you mentioned. I love those, too. Kittens...my favorite little animals. I have to force myself not to pick them up when they are offered to be given! It was so nice to visit you today :)

Your definition for a kinesthetic learner makes me think it might describe me after all. when you put it like that it sounds like the best and easiest way to learn, audio, visual, and hands on combined.

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